Festive holiday spirits this year again brought fun opportunities to celebrate by sharing and enjoying delicious sparkling wines. But the best policy is always to have chilled bottles on hand for drinking throughout the year and not just on New Year’s Eve.
Now is a particularly good time to go with French sparklers before inventories are depleted if trade tariffs become a reality. Let’s hope that, as in 2020, the threatened tariffs simply turn out as a negotiating ploy without being implemented. Meanwhile France’s diverse sparkling wine selections offer terrific options.
Before enjoying the bottles, remember that sparkling wines are bottled under pressure because of those beguiling bubbles. Winemakers bottle sparkling wines with a sturdy sparkling wine cork topped by a wire cage. When removing the wire cage and then opening the sparkling wine bottle, keep your thumb over the cork to prevent it from popping out in explosive fashion.
After all, shooting a cork into your eye is no way to go! Enjoy the following tasty and reasonably priced French sparkling wines:
Bourgogne and Alsace Sparklers
From southern Bourgogne, the N.V. Cave Les Vignerons de Mancey, Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Réserve ($19.99 at Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board stores; PLCB No. 28778) comes from a coopérative owned by 50 winegrowers farming 250 acres of vines. Their vineyards boast classic Bourgogne grapes varieties. This wine comes from a blend of hand-harvested Aligoté, Gamay, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.
This wine’s nose offers aromas of apples, citrus, and light berry notes. The flavors on the palate are fresh and fruity. This is an easy-drinking and delightful bottle of bubbly to toast holiday spirit.
From northern Bourgogne, the N.V. Caves Bailly Lapierre, Crémant de Bourgogne, Pinot Noir Brut (Average U.S. Price on Wine-Searcher: $24.99) is called a “blanc de noirs,” a white wine made from dark-skinned grapes. In this case, it’s made from Pinot Noir grapes. After hand harvesting, destemming and light crushing of the grapes, the fresh juice has only brief contact with the dark grape skins before pressing. This allows white wine to unfold with just a faint note of pink.
The secondary méthode traditionnelle fermentation that takes place in the bottle to create fine bubbles also adds subtle yeasty notes. On the palate, crisp citrus and frothy green apple flavors mingle with fresh acidity and intriguing creamy accents. The elegant, dry finish lingers deliciously.
In northeastern France, in Alsace near the border with Germany, winegrowers carry on the tradition of offering fruity, yet dry sparkling wines with good quality at marvelous prices. For example, try the delightful N.V. Gustave Lorentz, Crémant D’Alsace Brut Rosé (Average U.S. price on Wine-Searcher: $29.00).
The producer of this wine dates back to 1836 with the founding of Maison Gustave Lorentz in Bergheim, a lovely village of half-timbered houses within well-preserved medieval fortifications. Seven generations later, today Georges Lorentz leads the firm which organically farms around 80 prime acres on the rolling hills and steep hillsides surrounding Bergheim.
To create this wine, carefully sorted Pinot Noir grapes initially go through a primary fermentation. Then the wine develops its delightful, frothy sparkle through the méthode traditionnelle over two years of patient secondary fermentation in the bottles.
The wine’s lovely salmon color unfolds persistent beads of bubbles. On the nose, enticing aromas of red cherries and blackberries mingle with light yeasty notes. On the palate, ripe red fruit flavors balance with superb, fresh acidity and tantalizing frothiness through the dry, yet fruity finish.
Champagne and Loire Pet-Nat Sparkler
If you prefer your bubbly wine with a kiss of well-balanced sweetness, then try the N.V. Champagne Moutard Père et Fils, Grande Cuvée Demi-Sec, France ($36.99, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Number 47833). The wine comes from hand-harvested Pinot Noir grapes that offer a fine balance of ripe fruitiness and fresh acidity. This excellent balance provides a perfect foundation for creating a delightful sparkling wine.
Fine beads of bubbles lace this wine’s golden color. In the glass, honeysuckle and pineapple aromas open to fruity citrus and tropical fruit flavors. The fruity finish lingers pleasurably with mouthwatering freshness.
For a more distinctive, yet still enjoyable sparkling wines, next try the delightful N.V. François et Julien Pinon, Pétillant Naturel Non-Dosé Rosé, Vin de France ($37 at Apteka Bottle Shop, 4606 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. Also available at Chambers Streets Wines in New York City. The wine comes from organically grown Côt and Grolleau, red-skinned grapes planted originally to provide red wines for the estate’s vineyard workers in Vouvray in the Loire Valley.
Today the grapes are hand-harvested and then fermented with indigenous yeasts to capture natural fruity flavors and freshness. Before the initial fermentation finishes, the young wine is bottled with a crown cap.
This “méthode ancestrale” process allows fermentation to finish in the bottle, capturing bubbles naturally. The final wine is an example of the now popular “pét-nat” wines.
The wine’s vibrant salmon color delivers persistent, light fizziness to tingle the nose. In the glass, it offers irresistible aromas and flavors of fresh, ripe raspberries and strawberries. It finishes dry with frothy, red fruit flavors that linger pleasingly.
Cheers!